WWW.FLOORNATURE.COM, architecture, design and project culture portal is holding the second international contest for young architects: NEXT LANDMARK. The idea is to spotlight and acknowledge the merit of unpublished research and new projects to provide greater visibility and a chance at success for the new generation of architects and architecture photographers, promoting what they are doing or planning for contemporary living. An ethical opportunity with a declared interest in the community, helping up-and-coming architects move forward in their careers. Next Landmark 2013 is being held in collaboration with Università IUAV di Venezia (university of architecture in Venice) and with the Masters course of Integrated Communication and Design (MSTC) at IUSVE (Salesian Pontifical University of Venice).There is no Contest entry fee and it is all held online.

ELIGIBILITY
The contest for the Research and First Work categories is open to all design professionals (architects, engineers, landscape architects, urban planners, designers) who graduated after 1st January 2000. The contest for the Photography category is open to all designers, architecture photographers and students enrolled in an Architecture/Design/Engineering Degree. Contestants may enter individually or as part of a team. In the case of team entries, while recognising all members as owners of the submission, the contest organisers require a team leader to be nominated as the single contact person to liaise with the organisers and in whose name the award will be presented, if applicable. Contestants may enter only once in each category, either individually or as a member of a team.

Guidelines For “First Work” And “Research”

Awards will be presented to architecture projects and studies that innovatively use building materials, taking into account the following parameters:
• the project’s originality;
• awareness of environmental sustainability;
• relations between humans, architecture and the land;
• technical, aesthetic or conceptual innovation.
Technical use of materials includes: new materials applied to architecture, use of traditional materials in new ways, building techniques that use materials to improve performance or quality of living of a building or urban space, etc. Aesthetic use of materials includes: traditional materials used in innovative architectural compositions, conventional materials combined with innovative and high performance materials, local materials used in new ways to support a traditional idiom and become a recognised aesthetic, etc.
Conceptual use of materials includes: study of building materials or skins in architecture or in communication idioms, urban and social redevelopment studies using high performance or conventional materials, ideologies of design for building materials in contemporary architecture, etc.

Guidelines For Photography
“When we argue that a photograph or a drawing doesn’t get across the exact idea of a building already constructed, at the same time we declare the following truism: that you cannot judge a building out of its environment and that the value of a building depends on its environment. In other words, the environment is important enough to substantially change the impression that a building can give and, in the final analysis, its artistic value” Giovanni Michelucci (1939). On the basis of this statement by Giovanni Michelucci, the photographic reportage in the contest needs to highlight the aesthetic value of the architectural Landmark and of the environment that the architecture project develops: the building is part of this “choral” environment. Photographs fix the appearance and often betrays the reality. The art of photography must instinctively create a new expressive situation that reveals the essential qualities of
the building.

PRIZES
The Jury will award the following prizes:

Winner in the First Work category:
• trip for two people to Helsinki with accommodation for 3 nights during the Helsinki Design Week (13th – 16th September) + tour
• certificate as winner of the First Work category in the Floornature Contest;
• display of the project in the contest Exhibition held at SpazioFMG in Milan from 2nd to 11th October 2013;
• publication of the project on http://www.floornature.com, on the FB page, in newsletters and in LivegreenBlog

Winner in the Research category:
• 3-month internship at BNKR architecture firm in Mexico City (date to be arranged). Floornature will cover the winner’s travelling expenses to Mexico City.
• certificate as winner of the Research category in the Floornature Contest;
• display of the project in the contest Exhibition held at SpazioFMG in Milan from 2nd to 11th October 2013;
• publication of the project on http://www.floornature.com, on the FB page, in newsletters and in LivegreenBlog

Winner in the Photography category:
• trip for two people to Helsinki with accommodation for 3 nights during the Helsinki Design Week (13th – 16th September) + tour
• publication on http://www.floornature.com of an exclusive photographic reportage executed during Helsinki Design Week;
• certificate as winner of the Photography category in the Floornature Contest;
• display of the project in the contest Exhibition held at SpazioFMG in Milan from 2nd to 11th October 2013;
• publication of the project on http://www.floornature.com, on the FB page, in newsletters and in LivegreenBlogTwo honourable mentions in each category will be awarded to projects c

considered worthy of mention;
they will receive:
• certificate of honourable mention in the Floornature Contest;
• display of the project in the contest Exhibition held at SpazioFMG in Milan from 2nd to 11th October 2013;
• publication of the project on http://www.floornature.com, on the FB page, in newsletters and in LivegreenBlog